Tag: Olympic National Forest

Mt Ellinor

Mt Ellinor – Mt Washington Complex

Mt Ellinor and Mt Washington provide the south end of the view of the Olympics from the Seattle area. There is a trail that runs to the top of Ellinor, while Mt Washington is an ‘easy’ more technical climb. The stunning views from the summit of Ellinor provide an attraction that draws thousands of hikers each summer. (Hint: avoid summer weekends. Don’t expect solitude.) There are several different trailheads, letting the hiker choose the length and strenuousness of the hike. A dusty gravel logging road provides access to the higher trailheads. The view from the top of Ellinor includes a view of Lake Cushman (below).

Lake Cushman and the Ellinor/Washington complex.

From the summit of Elinor, you can see Mt Washington and the Puget Sound basin, including Mt Baker (on the far left skyline, below) and Mt Rainier.

Mt Ellinor – Mt Washington Ridge

Turning the other direction you have a stunning view of the southern and central Olympics (below).

View to the Northwest from the summit of Mt Ellinor

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Rhody in the Sun

Rhody in the Sun

I was hiking up the Mount Walker trail in the Olympic National Forest recently. It’s a good warm up hike … close to Port Townsend and pretty steep, but short. What I like best is I can drive to the top and hike down until my knees are complaining, then turn around and hike back up. On the return trip, I came around the corner of a switchback and there was a rhododendron highlighted by the sun through a break in the forest canopy.

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Constance Pass Views

Constance Pass View 1

These images were all taken within a few minutes of each other from Constance Pass in the Olympics. (outside of the Olympic National Park … in the Buckhorn Wilderness) The one above is looking northeast and shows the west side of Mt Constance (on the right). Constance is the tallest peak you can see from Seattle’s view to the west.

This hike used to be a long one day hike from the Dosewallips trailhead … but the road being washed out now for 20 years or so has added an additional 6+ miles each way to the distance. The valley to the left of the image above is the upper Dungeness.

Constance Pass View 2

The view in the second image (above) is looking southwards … across the valley of the Dosewallips. The image below shows the view looking west towards Mt Mystery and into the Olympic National Park.

Constance Pass VIew 3

These were taken years ago, but I just found them and assembled them into panoramas. I didn’t have a lot of experience with panoramas at that time and there was no easy software fix to assemble them. That is the reason why the images are not ‘taller’. They were a little crooked … and to crop them to keep from having lots of empty space meant that they were wide and short.

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Dosewallips Road (washed out)

Dosewallips Road (Washed Out)

This image was sitting around unloved. The problem was that in color it was BORING. I was going through my past shots and hitting the “V” key (while in LIghtroom). That is a shortcut key for converting an image to Black and White. When I got to this image, I stopped. It definitely showed promise, so I spent the additional time on it to adjust it further (the default black and white conversion is pretty generic). A good reminder to never take things at first glance.

The Dosewallips River road was washed out 20 years ago, or so. This section is now closed to motor vehicles, but makes a great walk. The Dosewallips valley is on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. It has been closed for years while they attempt to come up with a plan to reroute the road without endangering salmon in the river … and keep the cost down (since to move the road away from the river at the wash out point would be an extensive relocation up the hillside).

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Lowland Woods

Nurse Stump

As much as I enjoy the high country, this time of year there just isn’t much access available in the Olympics. So it’s the lowlands. There are plenty of good hikes that are (mostly) snow-free all year, with pleasant views and interesting features. This trail runs out of Dosewallips State Park on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. The Nurse Stump was amazing and the small creek provided a wonderful sound track.

Small Creek, Dosewallips State Park
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